Corporate profits soar and workers suffer

According to a report by The New York Times, corporate profits are soaring. At least that’s the case for the biggest companies that report earnings. The Times said that profits of 175 of America’s biggest corporations have soared by a whopping 42% this year. Even with all of the economic woes in the U.S., the 500 largest corporations now have an all-time record $1 trillion in cash. It’s rather strange that while profits are rising by leaps and bounds, and tremendous sums of cash are being hoarded, corporate bosses are not hiring employees.

Instead they are firing or laying off existing workers. You might want to check out a few of these companies. You can start with these: Ford Motor Company; Alcoa; Harley Davidson; United Technologies and even General Motors. Each of these companies – with the exception of GM – had record profits and yet cut payroll. For example Ford had $2.6 billion in profits during the period April, May and June, but cut its workforce in half during the past decade and recently announced it would not be hiring any new workers. I understand the code word for not hiring is “keeping capacity in check.”